A two-day GPFI Forum on "Technological Trends in Digital Financial Inclusion" was hosted on a back-to-back basis with the second GPFI Plenary meeting, serving as an opportunity to broadcast the importance of technology as a booster of digital financial services. Featuring avant-garde topics around the theme of digitisation, the Forum enabled GPFI members and stakeholders to join in discussions on how these issues impact the financial inclusion agenda from a policy perspective.

On the first day, participants discussed how the blockchain technology can impact financial inclusion by lowering transactional costs, making transactions more transparent, and facilitating payments and remittances. Attendees also discussed how innovative regulatory approaches, such as sandboxes or so-called “RegLabs”, can open space for positive change through innovation.

On the second day, Forum participants reflected on how interoperability among financial services providers could lower the costs of payment services while also extending the reach of such transactions. Finally, there were panels on gender, which is a cross-cutting issue of the Argentine G20 Presidency. Including and empowering women represents an enormous opportunity, and financial inclusion can greatly contribute to it.

The Forum took place on 3-4 July 2018 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

DATA

The G20 Financial Inclusion Indicators assess the state of financial inclusion and digital financial services, nationally and globally. The data, which measures accessibility, use, and quality of financial services, can be used by countries to support their financial inclusion goals.